There's Always a Catch
by Em Mindelan
Summary: Nothing is ever quite what it appears. SV vignettes...with a twist. Post "Phase One."
1. Actions

TITLE: Actions  
TIMELINE: Now that'd be telling. Sometime around the end of Season 2, start of Season 3.   
SUMMARY: You know you shouldn't be doing this. Vaughn POV, secondperson fic. Read carefully.  
RATING: PG-13. It's probably the closest thing to very, very, very, very, very mild sort of kind of not really smut I'll ever write. Which is really very, very, very tame.   
  
**Actions**  
  
You know you shouldn't be doing this.  
  
Not now.  
  
Not here.  
  
Not with her.  
  
But you are.  
  
And you can't stop it, no matter how bitter your betrayal of her tastes in your mouth.  
  
*  
  
She's been gone for too long.  
  
You can't fight this anymore.  
  
You need this.  
  
And so does she.  
  
*  
  
She starts it.  
  
She kisses you.  
  
Fiercely.  
  
Passionately.  
  
Hungrily.  
  
But you kiss her back.  
  
And you can feel your need for her racing through your veins. Shooting down your spine.  
  
And you can't fight it anymore.  
  
*  
  
It's quick, and it's dirty, and it's fast.  
  
But it satisfies your need.  
  
And that's all you're thinking about.  
  
Because it distracts you from thoughts of the way in which you're betraying her.  
  
Thoughts of what she'd say if she'd found out.  
  
Thoughts of the look of disappointment when she realized that you weren't the angel you'd always pretended to be.  
  
You finish quickly, and get out of there as fast as possible.  
  
You don't need to see the look on her face after you've both finished.  
  
You know what she looks like only too well enough.  
  
And you know that she doesn't look like the woman that you're supposed to be with right now.  
  
*  
  
This is wrong.  
  
This is wrong.  
  
This is wrong.  
  
  
  
This is right.  
  
This is right.  
  
This is right.  
  
*  
  
You no longer know which ones are which anymore, and to be perfectly honest, you don't really care that much.  
  
Right and wrong stopped meaning anything to you after Jack Bristow called you naïve.  
  
You laugh at that now, laugh at the truth of it all, and the bitter irony.  
  
You had been naïve.  
  
That had been true.  
  
The man you had been had been naïve.  
  
You're not naïve anymore.  
  
You've had too much blood on your hands to be naïve anymore.  
Too many deaths.  
  
Too many wrongs.  
  
Too many sins.  
  
And so now you no longer try to be "good", knowing that whatever evils you've committed in your past had long ago established your eventual destination.  
  
Which is why you're back here a week later.  
  
Doing the same thing.  
  
In the same style.  
  
With the same woman.  
  
*  
  
You do _know_ it's wrong.   
  
You just don't care that much anymore.  
  
Not now.  
  
Not as she ripples around you, her muscles clenching, holding you tight.  
  
Not as she kisses you and caresses you gently and _ohgodthatsgood_.  
  
Not as she makes you feel better than you have in a long time.  
  
Not now.  
  
*  
  
You do later.  
  
Oh, yes.  
  
You do later.  
  
When you hold her in your arms and blonde hair cascades down over her shoulders and onto your arms.  
  
And you can't help wishing it was brown.  
  
*  
  
But she's dead.  
  
And this is might not be right – but it's right now.  
  
She's dead.  
  
And you're a sinner.  
  
*  
  
And so what if your list of sins reads 'slept with another woman while still in love with a dead one?'  
  
It'd just be one more in a long list of trangressions.  
  
And so what does one more matter?  
  



	2. Words

TITLE: Words  
SUMMARY: Pride and Prejudice. Cars. Storms. Syd and Vaughn. To say anything else would be to ruin the story.  
RATING: PG  
TIMELINE: Post "Phase One"  
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. All JJ's.  
DEDICATION: To **!Kira**, for being wonderful. Thanks again for the code, and thanks for starting up Variorum. And everyone, go and read Kira's fics. They're awesome. And she doesn't get nearly enough reviews.   
  
_*the words*_  
  
"Hey, Syd."  
  
"Vaughn, I have to get this paper written, okay?"  
  
"Yes, Dr. Bristow…"  
  
_*the easiness*_  
  
"Vaughn, what are you doing? You're distracting me!"  
  
"No, I'm not. You're distracting yourself. I'm just standing here."  
  
"Watching me write! You know how much I hate people standing over my shoulder when I work!"  
  
"Well, I'm not technically standing over your shoulder, actually, Syd."  
  
"Your. Chin. Is. On. My. Shoulder, Vaughn."  
  
"Hmm. So it is. And your point is?"  
  
"Vaughn!"  
  
"Ooof! Syd, you know I'm ticklish!"  
  
"Serves you right, you, you, you big…distractor!"  
  
_*the laughter*_  
  
"Syd, are you finished with that paper yet?"  
  
"Nearly, Vaughn. Be patient."  
  
"Patience is a virtue I was unfortunately born without."  
  
"Why doesn't that surprise me?"  
  
"Okay. I'm done. What's up?"  
  
"What was the paper about?"  
  
"_Pride and Prejudice_. Have you ever read it?"  
  
"No…._Pride and Prejudice_ really isn't a guys' type of book, Syd."  
  
"Vaughn….there's no such thing as guys' books and girls' books. Really."  
  
"Sure, Syd, sure. All I know is that if Weiss ever saw me reading it, my life would not be worth living."  
  
"You're a spy. You don't think you could keep a simple book hidden?"  
  
"Sydddddd…..it's the principle of the thing."  
  
"You and your principles."  
  
_*the kiss*_  
  
"What was that for?"  
  
"Having principles."  
  
_*the promise*_  
  
"Would you like me to read you some of my paper?"  
  
"What's it on?"  
  
"Vaughnnnn, I already told you. _Pride and Prejudice_."  
  
"Sydd…I already listened. What _part_ of the book?"  
  
"It's significance as an predecessor to modern day romance novels….and how women want to find their very own Darcy."  
  
"Darcy's the guy in the book, right?"  
  
"Yes, Vaughn, Darcy is the guy…"  
  
"What's so special about him, anyway?"  
  
"He's hot. Really, really, really hot. Or Colin Firth is, at any rate. And he's British. And cold. And unemotional, until he falls in love with Elizabeth. He's noble, and he's got a massive estate – Pemberley, and he's misunderstood, and strong, and _noble_…"  
  
"Syd, should I be jealous?"  
  
"What? Oh! Of course not. You're much more gorgeous than Colin Firth is, anyway. And your taste in clothes is much better than Darcy's."  
  
"Well, that's good to know. But I thought you were going to read me some of the paper?"  
  
"Okay…but you know how much I hate reading my work out loud… '_Another reason behind Pride and Prejudice's success as a novel is its focus on love and marriage. We are programmed biologically to want to procreate, to find a mate and have children. We cannot escape these biological desires, only formalize them and give them names like ''love'' and ''marriage''. All human beings crave love, and most, if not nearly all, of us crave marriage._'"  
  
"Please tell me that this isn't a not so subtly veiled hint at something, Syd…"  
  
"What? No, no, no. _Pride and Prejudice_ has a ridiculous number of weddings, though. I swear, everyone in that novel who's not either already married or just plain evil is married by the end of the novel. And those who aren't are mentioned in the epilogue as having 'married well.' Vaughn, what's wrong? You look disappointed."  
  
"Well, it's just that I wouldn't have necessarily minded it having being a hint – subtle or not."  
  
"Are you-are you?"  
  
"No, not now. It's not the right moment. But someday…sometime….when you least suspect it….I might just pounce. With a ring and a question."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Okay?"  
  
"Okay."  
  
"You're sure I'm hotter than that Darcy guy?"  
  
"Yes, Vaughn."  
  
*_the conversations about nothing at all_*  
  
"Syd…do you think I should get a new car?"  
  
"I don't know, Vaughn. What's wrong with your old one?"  
  
"Nothing, really. It's just….old."  
  
"Hmm. It's up to you. What sort of car would you think of getting?"  
  
"Oh, probably just the latest model of the car I've got now."  
  
"Vaughn! You wouldn't change _anything_? What about the colour?"  
  
"Oh, black, of course. You really can't go past black for a car colour."  
  
"Hmph. _Men_."  
  
"But you love us anyway, don't you?"   
  
"Yes. We do."  
  
"What's the weather like today, Syd?"  
  
"You don't have legs to walk to the window and see for yourself?"  
  
"I'm tired…."  
  
"And I'm not?"  
  
"You're closer!"  
  
"By three inches!"  
  
"Three inches is a long way when you're this tired! And I think I've drunk too much beer. Really."  
  
"Yeah, well, I could have told you that."  
  
"How's the weather?"  
  
"Pretty dark and grey and miserable, really. It looks like it's about to storm."  
  
"Do you want to watch it?"  
  
"Is the Earth round?"  
  
*_and the heartbreaking realization_*  
  
"Mike?"  
  
"Mike?"  
  
"Mike?"  
  
"Mike, wake up!"  
  
"Uhhh….Eric….whattya doin' here? And where's-where's Sydney?"  
  
"Mike…she's gone. She's been gone for nearly six months now."  
  
"But the storm – and Pride and Prejudice, and my new car…."  
  
"It was all in your head, buddy."  
  
"It…it was more real than this."  
  
"Yeah, Vaughn, I know. I know."  
  
"So it wasn't real? Any of it?"  
  
"No. I'm sorry, buddy. But she's gone."  
  
"Not in here she's not."  
  
"I know."  
  
*_that none of it was real_*


End file.
